A Beer Lover’s Guide To The Best Beer In Chicago

Chicago is a beer city. The city by the lake has an endless water supply to the east and amber waves of grain to the west with a deeply Central European migrant community right in the middle. If you’re in the US, you really can’t find a better spot to set up shop as a brewer.

It’d be easy to make this a list of the 50 best spots to drink beer in Chicago. Really, we could. There just so many dive bars, hipper-than-thou gastropubs, breweries, tap rooms, beer-themed restaurants, and straight up bars in the Chi that any list of ten will be woefully incomplete. But, alas, here we are.

This is much more about getting into the scene, a scene where great comfort food often meets equally great beer. Our picks are launching points — where to begin if you find yourself in the Windy with a hankering for a great glass of the sudsy stuff. This is your gateway to the best beer in Chicago.

Heading about 30 minutes north of downtown, you’ll find the suburb of Evanston and one of the best breweries in the Midwest today. Temperance Beer Company is killing the game with classic foundational brewing that takes flight with ingenuity and playfulness. This is good beer, people.

The tap room at the brewery serves 16 beers fresh from the spigot. The atmosphere takes on an almost beer garden vibe with a lot of toasting as the beer flows well into the night. They also have a great selection of food trucks pulling up to sling some serious foodie delights. Start with one of Temperance’s huge imperial stouts off the tap and work your way through the bitters, porters, saisons, and pales until you get to Basement Party lager.